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- A Texas cop was fired after violating his department's policy during a shooting that killed a man.
- Jesse Joseph Fischer was fatally shot after a low-speed chase on Wednesday.
- Arlington Police Officer Robert Phillips was terminated on Friday, local news reported.
A Texas cop was terminated Friday for violating his police department's use of force policy after he shot and killed a 40-year-old man following a low-speed pursuit that occurred two days earlier, KXAS-TV first reported.
Arlington Police Chief Al Jones announced the firing of officer Robert Phillips at a press conference on Friday, according to the report. Phillips had been on the force for seven years, the report said.
Jones also released the body camera and dashcam footage from the October 20 incident that resulted in the death of the man identified by police as Jesse Joseph Fischer.
On Wednesday afternoon, Phillips and another officer responded to a 911 call about a man, Fischer, slumped over in his vehicle while on a busy parkway in Arlington, Texas, The Dallas Morning News reported. According to the report, when the officers approached Fischer, he drove off.
When Fischer stopped at an intersection, Phillips demanded that he turn his car off and "throw the keys out," according to the footage obtained by WFAA. Fischer drove away again.
The dashcam video showed the moment Fischer turned around and attempted to make a U-turn in a dead-end cul-de-sac, leading Phillips to exit his vehicle and fire his weapon multiple times through Fischer's windshield, according to the WFAA report.
At the Friday press conference, Jones said he "thoroughly reviewed the video footage for this case. I reviewed other relevant items as well including interviews that have been conducted," although he recognized that the department has not fired an officer in two days, according to the Dallas Morning News.
"I don't think we've ever fired anybody in two days," he said.
"The facts as we know them today are not going to change," Jones added. "As a result of the administrative review, I have decided to terminate his employment."
Jones said that Phillips could have taken different measures to avoid shooting Fischer, stating that he could have remained in his vehicle "so he didn't put himself in a situation where he had to use deadly force," Dallas Morning News reported.
WFAA reported Phillips failed to follow the department's policy to not fire at a moving car and to only use deadly use of force when necessary in cases to "protect yourself or someone else."
J.P Mason, the President of the Arlington Police Association that represents officers, said the "department needs to allow the total investigation to be done and all the facts reviewed before taking such punitive action against the officer," the Dallas Morning News reported.